The NCTA’s hunt for a new CEO is ramping up, with industry officials starting to float names, but with no list of candidates being evaluated by the cable association, executives watching the job search said. They said progress in finding a replacement for Kyle McSlarrow, who plans to leave this spring (CD Nov 11 p5), is at an early stage. Many member companies of NCTA haven’t been briefed on where the search stands, meaning that the day may still be a way off when a list of candidates for formal interviews is created, executives said. One cable executive said he and others wish they were more involved, while others said they're watching the search but haven’t been part of the discussion yet. Such involvement could come later.

A push to give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety gained steam Thursday. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., introduced bipartisan legislation (HR-607) with Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and five others. President Barack Obama called for D-block reallocation in a speech the same day. (See separate report in this issue.) But key members of the House Commerce Committee said they support a commercial D-block auction.

Sustaining community media and its adoption of multiple communications platforms must be achieved through better infrastructure, cable franchising and other policy priorities, community media leaders said at an event late Wednesday discussing a new report at the New America Foundation. A major threat is the public’s access to distribution infrastructure, said Joshua Breitbart, an analyst for the foundation’s Open Technology Initiative: “That threat necessitates a multi-platform approach to community media.” Public, educational and governmental (PEG) channels are increasingly taking advantage of new technologies and working across other forms of media, including mobile, wireless and cable, he said. “If there are challenges or losses in one platform, there are other opportunities for distribution."

President Barack Obama Thursday called for $10.7 billion to be dedicated to nationwide wireless public safety network, and $5 billion for a one-time upgrade to 4G wireless in rural America. Obama dedicated most of Thursday to wireless, flying to Marquette, Mich., where he viewed a WiMAX network installed at Northern Michigan University and spoke at the school to an enthusiastic audience standing in front of a sign that read “Winning the Future."

The FCC Media Bureau denied an experimental license application from low-power TV (LPTV) operator WatchTV that sought to test an OFDM-based broadcast transmission system popular overseas with an in-band broadband service. The applicants had complained the request wasn’t getting the attention it deserved (CD Jan 14 p4). But the request appeared to seek authority to introduce a new service that doesn’t comply with FCC rules and would appear to be more akin to a developmental license rather than an experimental license, bureau Chief Bill Lake wrote Watch TV Chairman Greg Hermann, who’s also president of the LPTV group Spectrum Evolution. Developmental licenses should be accompanied by petition for rulemaking, Lake wrote. “Where a new service would employ technology inconsistent with the existing ATSC standard, any rulemaking most likely would be accompanied by industry standards development."

House Republicans aren’t on a “quest” to take back broadband stimulus money already obligated, said Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. He has a draft bill (CD Feb 10 p7) to speed the return of unused and misused money provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. After a hearing on the draft Thursday, Walden told reporters his goal is to set up “safeguards” to ensure that problems with broadband stimulus programs are found and to hasten the return of money to the U.S. Treasury.

Sprint Nextel added almost 1.2 million subscribers Q4, the first quarter it has added postpaid subscribers in more than three years. The company narrowed its loss to $929 million from $980 million a year earlier. Sprint will announce its long-term 4G strategy by midyear and may switch from WiMAX to LTE, CEO Dan Hesse indicated in a conference call Thursday.

IPhone fever appeared fairly low-grade at one of the two largest Verizon Wireless stores in Manhattan early Thursday when doors opened on 34th Street for in-store sales of Apple’s 3G iPhone 4. Verizon had prepared for a much larger crowd, but most of the roughly 18 stanchions perched outside the store for crowd control remained stacked against a post in our 90 minutes at the store. When we arrived about 6:30 a.m., prior to the scheduled opening at 7 a.m., 14 consumers, many sipping hot coffee, stood in line braving 26-degree temperatures. The line was far shorter than we, and apparently Verizon, had anticipated.

FCC action on a longstanding proposal to create Ku-band rules for the aeronautical mobile satellite service is in the works at the International Bureau, said commission officials and industry executives. The rules -- expected to resemble rules for vehicle-mounted earth stations and earth station on vessel in the same band -- would aid the inclusion of satellite broadband devices when airplanes are manufactured, said an industry executive. The FCC put out a rulemaking notice to set rules for the Ku-band service in 2005 but it has received sparse attention from industry, commission records show.

There are “surprising new developments” in the latest global fiber deployment rankings, the Fiber-to-the-Home Council said at its Milan conference Thursday. Turkey made the list for the first time, and the United Arab Emirates popped up fourth in FTTH market penetration, ahead of all European and Americas economies, the council said. Russia is about to overtake the U.S. in fiber connection penetration, it said, but European deployment remains slow and patchy. European Commission Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes blamed regulators, saying their uneven enforcement of next-generation access rules is hampering investment.